sometimes words don't do justice.

on the subway this afternoon, i noticed a guy get up so that a little girl could sit. i thought that was really nice and sweet. i got really sad cause i saw the little girl's face had some burn marks on her left cheek, the size of my palm. so then i smiled at the man, just to acknowledge the fact that i saw that random act of kindness, and of course, nothing happened. our stop came, and as i was leaving, i looked at him, and he said to me, "do good." i smiled back and went on my merry way.

how awesome is that?! i thought it was pretty cool...there ARE great people in this world! however, the other night i witness this man tormenting this younger guy, and straight up saying horrible things to him...AND he wouldn't stop, and THEN he tried to get other people on the subway involved. yeah...bad move buddy. the poor guy went on his merry way, stopped talking back, and tried to take a detour to transfer onto another train. well, what ended up happening, is we all ended up on the same transfer, and what did i witness? i saw the guy who was doing the making fun of, offer his seat to an elderly woman. it was quite the two-sided coin situation. after i saw that happen, i thought to myself, why did i witness that both? it was like good vs. evil kinda...that really stuck with me for that day, and clearly till now. :)

this past weekend we went to philly and attended an enneagram workshop with sr. barbara leonardo. i learned that i'm an 8, i learned that mary is a 5, and michelle is a 2/3 - debateable. :) BUT for our purposes, we will say she is a 2. needless to say, i guess one of the explanations to assist in the "you three get along so well!" conversation, is that the 2,5, and 8, are all complementary to one another. how awesome is that?! as an 8, i am described as being assertive. let's just say that out of the 20 questions that i took, to help me decide if i am an 8 or not, i answered 18 out of the 20, which applied YES for me. haha sooo i'm a strong 8, but a healthy 2. read up on enneagrams, and you will get a better idea of what that really means...BUT, i just love that the three of us are so into it! it's so wonderful! AND great to help in terms of praying for myself too. it's always nice to be able to evaluate my character and see how i am doing in life.

on that note, cabrini college. that's where we stayed last weekend. wow, how cute our humble abode was! we stayed with sister christine and the little house is SO cute. she was our snow white, and me, michelle, and mary, and mary's sister (sarah, who came to visit) were clearly the dwarves. it was such a good time - it's so funny because every weekend, it seems that i am barely in new york, and if i am, the agenda has already been made. haha...disponibilita at its finest! if it's all things that i truly, truly enjoy, i don't see a problem..therefore, no problem here :)

AND! we got to tape a radio show..it was such a great moment that we got to share with one another in terms of discussing things from our own perspectives. some of the questions we answered were, " why did you choose to do cabrini mission corps ? " " what's it like living with the sisters in a convent?" "what advice would you give to young people debating whether or not they would like to do volunteer work?" - it was beautiful to hear each of mary and michelle's responses, and it was AWESOME to hear us say the same phrase to answer the question on what advice would we give to other young people..."listen to your heart." please tell me how that is possible that we all said the same thing?!

haha, all i have to say with that, is, that is just such confirmation as to why the three of us have been called to mission, with mother cabrini. when we attended mass at cabrini college, i can not even tell you how great it was to be surrounded by other college students attending mass. dr. george gave a reflection on mother cabrini and connected it to the gospel. when she was speaking and talking about the courage and boldness of mother cabrini, i could not help but keep fidgeting in my chair, because i was so excited and so on fire to do the work that mother cabrini did. what an inspiring woman! she went for it...even when people slammed doors in her face, even when they said, NO, go back to italy, there's nothing here for you in new york, she stayed, she persevered, and boom, look at all of the missions she has set up! it is quite remarkable. no doubt in my mind that i have been called to the charism of mother cabrini, and out of all the people, i picture a whole pool of thousands and thousands of young people, and i see her sifting through the individuals, and boop! she picked me, michelle and mary for this year, and soon another missioner, alice. it's just so very special, and something that i hold dear to my heart.

i was talking with my friend jess about this the other night when we visited our friend ryan at work, and i could not help but just talk about how much i love my life, and how much i love where everything is in my life. no, not everything is perfect, but i can not help but see the grace, the beauty, the love that i am surrounded in every day. i would not want it any other way right now, and God bless everything that has led me here. she saws the joy that was on my face, and i think she felt my heart too. it was genuinely happy. amen!

i had my meeting with my spiritual director today, and after 7 kleenex, i was done, done done...i had no idea that i had such an emotional experience with my past week of spiritual exercises - the scriptures were great! - but apparently i did. i remember in the moments of my prayer, i felt very moved, but as i was processing the week of prayer with my spiritual director, and as i talked to her more about the feelings that i had, and the sights that i saw when i vividly recalled the scripture readings as they played out in my mind and imagination, i could not help but start crying. such a blessing, and such a flow of emotion came over me...the story of Jesus curing the crippled woman, the prodigal son...the Spirit giving me the words...becoming a new creation...there is just so much in these scriptures, and for the first time, truly, these scriptures are coming to life, and these scriptures are allowing me to just be - "just be" with God...oh, so goood! there aren't even words! how wonderful that is!

tomorrow is mother cabrini's feast day, and it will be a party all around! i am excited to go to mass with the sisters, have lunch with them, then dinner at our place to continue the celebration! tita aida, our cook, is making filipino food to celebrate! my mom sent me empanada too, so i think i will break that open so that we can all share it. yay! :) woohoo!

my eyes are tired from such a wholesome, wonderful day. even though i felt sick as soon as i woke up this morning, God provided, and it was good. oh, so good. :) YAY!